


Is This Seat Taken?

by iLibra



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Slow Build, Slow Build is Best Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-03 05:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5278736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iLibra/pseuds/iLibra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coffee Shop AU<br/>John has to share a table with a certain blond stranger at a coffee shop during his lunch break.</p><p>Rating may or may not go up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Black Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Coffee Shop AU? Coffee Shop AU.

“Excuse me? Is this seat taken?”

John was startled by the voice approaching him so suddenly, ripping him out of his thoughts. He was in the middle of his daily lunch break at a coffee shop nearby where he went everyday, now an hour later than usual since they changed his working shift because of recent events. When he gave his order and received his coffee, he took a seat at a small table with two chairs at the back of the shop. John liked sitting as far in the back as possible, because he could easily watch over everything, while not having to deal with the people around him. The coffee shop was pretty empty when he first came in, but a few minutes later it started getting really crowded in there, and the second chair at his table was soon the only place left to sit.

Not long after that a blond man was looking at him expectantly, pointing at the last empty chair.

“No, go ahead.” he mumbled and took a sip of his coffee. John had never been good with social interactions, no matter the context.

“Alright, thanks.” the other man said and took the seat in front of him. “Sorry, but this is literally the only chair left in this whole shop, so, yeah...” he continued, giving him a little smile.

“No, it's okay, don't worry.” John tried to reassure him, even though he didn't get why this would be such a big deal. He started wondering if he was looking like he was angry again, something people told him quite often.

He tried to take a not-too-obvious look at the man in front of him, while he was searching through his leather bag he had brought with him. His blond hair was slicked back and hung up to his shoulders, but the most distinguishing feature were his aviators. It was the middle of October and the weather was getting colder by the day, so there was no reasonable explanation for them that John could think of. At first he considered the possibility of the other man being blind, but the way he looked at him while asking for the chair, and more importantly, the fact that he was reading through some papers now made this an unlikely scenario.

He thought it was a bit strange, but then again, like he was one to talk, with that black eye patch covering his right eye. His hand wandered up to it unconsciously, touching the skin underneath it, his fingertips brushing the black material.

A few years ago he screwed up at work, and he screwed up bad. He had thought he was fine working at that kind of job again, but that time, he just froze. His boss always told him he could be glad he only lost an eye, could have been much worse. But she also wasn't there with him, so she couldn't comprehend the hours of pain when he tried to continue his job, while he had no way of stopping the blood dripping from his now damaged eye. He quickly tried to shake this memory off.

A lot of people usually gave him weird looks because of his patch, but the stranger sitting in front of him didn't seem to mind at all. He was so absorbed in his papers that he barely managed to drink whatever that caramel colored drink in front of him was.

He wondered what he was reading that it took so much of his attention, but he would never get the idea of actually asking. It was the same as if you catch a glimpse at a strangers phone and wondered who they were talking to. Especially all the teenagers who could type on their phones at high speed. You sometimes ask yourself what could be going on in the lives of these strangers, but you always drop the thought rather quickly and go on with whatever you're doing. Just because they were sitting at the same table doesn't mean he could just talk to him like that, right?

Either way he took the chance while the other man was still occupied with his papers to take another look at him. Besides his aviators he was looking pretty normal, but for sure considered handsome by the ladies and John couldn't quite argue with that. He tried to make out the color of his eyes, but could only tell that they were not very dark, so maybe green, blue or a very light brown, but it was really hard to tell with the dark lenses in the way. He snapped out of it, when he noticed he was staring at Kaz's eyes rather intensely, and looked down at his hands.

He glanced at his wristwatch and noticed that his break was almost over. He stood up and quickly slipped into his jacket. He reached out to take his coffee mug, when he remembered the employees of the shop would have to deal with it later, so he dropped his hands again, not quite sure where to put them.

The stranger glanced up from his papers, looking at him curiously, so John mumbled a quiet “Bye.” before he made his way to the door. He could hear something that sounded like a “Goodbye.” but wasn't quite sure of that, walking too fast. He pushed the big glass door of the coffee shop open and made his way out, ready to walk the few blocks to his work place.

Although it was getting colder, the orange and red colors the leaves were showing was compensation enough for the time being. Another look at his watch told him that he spent more time at the coffee shop than he would have liked to. This really wasn't like him, who usually got to work rather too early than too late. Since he got back to working a desk job, his boss kept scolding him for overworking himself and always cutting his breaks short.

John made his way to the small security firm he was working at, and just as he was walking through the door he heard the voice of his boss, Joy.

“There you are. Got a bit distracted during your break or something?” she asked with more amusement than anger in her voice, while folding her arms over her chest, her blonde hair framing her face. She may have seemed like she wanted to show her position as John's boss, but he knew her long enough to see that she wasn't really angry, just curious.

“Something like that.” he muttered his response, giving her a tight smile.

“Oh? So what's her name?” she almost laughed and put her hands on her hips, looking at him even more curious now.

“Haha. Very funny.” he responded in a deadpan voice. “I'll go to my desk.” John pointed at the stairs and was already on his way, when he heard Joy's voice shouting after him again.

“Oh, you have to tell me later then!” her amusement was way too obvious. She had always been like that. Very understanding with John's state of mind, but always latching onto the first signs of John seeming happier than usual, or showing any signs of breaking out of his routine really.

“It's nothing like that.” he shouted back without turning around, a low grumble in his voice.

While he made his way up the stairs he was thinking “Blue.” The color of his eyes was probably blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm Libra and I'm kinda new to writing MGS ffs. Thanks for reading so far :)  
> Comments and criticism is greatly apprechiated, especially since English isn't my native language!
> 
> The idea for this came from an alternate universe masterpost on tumblr saying: "Forced to share a table at the coffee shop a couple days in a row because crowded coffee shop and no room AU"
> 
> Feel free to shoot me a message at tumblr ( [ilibra.tumblr.com](http://ilibra.tumblr.com) ) if you want :)


	2. Espresso

_“An eye patch, huh?”_ Kaz thought absentmindedly, looking up from his papers and at the glass door the brunette stranger had just walked through. _“I wonder where he got that from.”_

He had noticed the strangers intense gaze lying on him, as he was reading through his preparation papers. Because of that he didn't really have a good chance to get a look at the other man. He gathered his papers, sighing, and slipped them back into his bag, giving his caramel macchiato all his attention now, leaning back in his seat.

He wondered what kind of job you'd have to do to get a wound like that, but then he considered that it could also have happened in his childhood or it could be something he had from birth, or it could be from some other kind of accident. His thoughts were circling around these questions when he heard a girl talk to what seemed like her boyfriend about something way too loud.

“Whoa, did you see that?” the girl asked, shoving her friend's shoulder.

“What? The eye patch on that guy? Yeah, he looked kinda creepy, didn't he?”

“Absolutely. I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley at night.” the girl giggled and the boy joined in with a chuckle.

Kaz almost told them to mind their own business, when he remembered he didn't really know anything about the man either. And there was also the fact that telling them to shut up, would somehow contradict the concept of letting people “mind their own business”, because he had just listened in on their conversation. But he was also certain the couple had to be wrong. How can you even judge anyone just from the fact he was wearing an eye patch? Kaz was almost sure the other man had to be a quiet kind of guy, but maybe really nice, if you got to know him better.

He shook the thoughts from his mind with a deep sigh and started gathering up his stuff. When he walked to the door, he made sure to give the couple a dark look, and then made his way back to university.

 

\---------------------------------------------

 

John went to the coffee shop, just like every day he had to go to work, ordered his black coffee and took a seat at the table in the back. And just like the day before, there were a lot of people showing up, a few minutes after he settled on his table.

He took a look around, at least he tried to, seeing that again, there were a lot of people gathered at the shop, but while he let his gaze roam, he noticed the blond man from yesterday walking towards his table again.

“Mind if I...?” the man asked gesturing to the empty seat.

“Ah, no, go ahead.” John said quickly, bringing his coffee cup up to his mouth again, having to occupy his hands somehow.

“Thanks again.” the stranger said, smiling.

And they settled in the same routine as the day before, John silently drinking his coffee, while the other man shuffled through his bag, took out some papers and read through them.

His break went by and John disappeared with his mumbled words of “Goodbye.”.

He somehow felt discontent with the situation, although he couldn't quite describe why. The silence that settled between these two wasn't awkward so to speak, but he just felt weird, sitting there, drinking his coffee in silence.

 

The next day everything played out just as before and John was sitting there again, facing the blond man, who silently took the seat on his table again, giving him a short smile.

He searched through his bag again, fishing out some documents, but this time lying them down on the table. He quickly took out a pen and read through the papers, following the lines with the pen in his hand.

John let his gaze wander over the paper, trying not to seem too curious about it, his coffee still in hand. The lines of text were written with a fountain pen on ruled paper. The other man underlined some words and wrote something on the side of the paper in curvy red letters. So he definitely didn't write this text, John thought as he saw the difference between the neatly written lines and the mans annotation on the side.

The blond man seemed to notice John's curious and concentrated gaze despite John's advances not to stare too hard. He looked at John, then at his papers and then at John again.

“Oh, sorry, am I taking up too much space on the table?” he asked, shifting the papers he had spread out so they weren't placed over the majority of the desk anymore.

“Ah, no, don't worry.” he reassured him quickly, looking into the others blue eyes, darkened by the lenses of his sunglasses. He could feel the heat rushing to his face for being found staring.

“I was just, uh... wondering what you were doing there.” John continued with another look over the papers, feeling embarrassed being so nosy, but still wanting to say something.

“Oh, I'm just correcting some works. I teach history at the university down the street, you know?” the other man explained, pointing in the vague direction of the road he was talking about.

“Ah, okay.” he said, happy to get some information after he wondered for so long, but still keeping a straight face. He tried to picture the university he was talking about in his mind, but could only vaguely remember the building, since he had to walk in the opposite direction from the coffee shop to get to work.

“Yeah, kinda boring, I know.” the blond man said, chuckling a bit embarrassed. John slapped himself internally. He must have given of an impression of disinterest, with his gruff voice, short answer and stoic face. He got that from a lot of people, telling him that he seemed bored with the conversation, because of the stern look on his face, and his almost nonexistent contributions to the conversation. But fact was, he just wasn't much of a talker. He enjoyed listening to others much more, but that made a lot of people feel like John didn't want to tell them anything about him, when in reality he was just more interested in learning about them.

“No, that's not what I meant. I think teaching kids about history is a great thing.” he tried his best to correct his first impression and show that he didn't think it's boring at all.

“Well, they are not really kids anymore in university, although I'm not so sure sometimes, when I'm reading through their answers.” the other man said, laughing and John smiled, glad that he could correct his initial statement.

“I'm Kaz, by the way.” the stranger introduced himself and offered him his hand.

“John.” he gave his own name, shaking his hand a bit hesitantly. “That's an interesting name.” he tried to keep the conversation going, because he really wanted to know more about this stranger named Kaz. He usually wasn't good at that, but he wanted to try to keep this going.

“Oh, it comes from Kazuhira. That's Japanese for peace.” he said making a short V-sign with his hand and John chuckled at that ridiculous yet endearing gesture.

“No offense, but you certainly don't look really, well... Japanese.” he mentioned after looking the other man up and down and Kaz laughed at this comment.

“Yeah, I get that a lot. My mother was Japanese, but my father was American, so guess I got more genes from him.” he explained and John gave him a short affirmative nod.

“Now, to be fair you have to tell me what _you_ do for work.” Kaz requested, leaning over the table slightly, taking his coffee mug in his hands, his papers seemingly forgotten. John shifted slightly in his seat, being both happy and nervous about the fact, that the other man wanted to know something about him. He had never really been good at talking about himself.

“Well, I'm working for the security firm around the corner.” he answered, pointing in the general direction of his office.

“So you're like a bodyguard or something?” Kaz asked, honest curiosity in his eyes and John shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Yeah, something like that.” John said, a bit embarrassed, looking to the side. _”Not at the moment though.”_ he thought to himself bitterly.

“Oh, is that the reason for the, uh...” the blond man trailed of, tipping the corner of his own right eye.

“Ah, yes, well...” touching his eye patch, John trailed off, not really sure how to talk about it, if he was able to talk about it at all. Kaz noticed his visible discomfort apparently, because he quickly changed the topic to something else.

 

They chatted for a long time, John telling him all kinds of stories about his job and his life, without saying too much. Kaz told him exciting stories about his students and all the things he has to keep up with at his university in return. They emptied their coffees and John took a quick glance on his wristwatch, noticing that he was already late for work, being so captured in their conversation.

“Shit, sorry, but I have to go back to work.” he said, gathering his jacket and putting it on quickly. Putting it on John let a short gaze wander over the papers on the table again, noticing that Kaz hadn't picked his pen up again since they started talking. “Ah, sorry, I didn't want to distract you from your work.” he apologized with a slight tint of red on his face. But the blond man just waved his hand at him.

“Don't worry, I didn't mind having some distraction from this. I can always finish this at home.” he said, giving him this warm smile again. “Have a nice day.”

“Thanks. Bye.” John answered, waving his hand nervously before scratching his neck and making his way out of the coffee shop.

He took a deep breath of fresh air once he got outside, not quite knowing what he should think of this whole situation up to now. It's been a really long time since he felt at least somewhat comfortable talking to somebody about himself, the only other person he could think of being his boss. Thinking of his boss he remembered, that he was already late, and started walking with quick steps.

And despite his panic about being late, even though he had nothing to worry about, he could feel himself looking forward to tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so their story goes on~  
> Thanks for reading and thanks for leaving kudos :'>
> 
> Tell me what you think in the comments!  
> You can always annoy me on tumblr if you want :) ( [ilibra.tumblr.com](http://ilibra.tumblr.com) )


	3. Mocha

Kaz came to their table and sat down. He didn't have to ask John anymore if he could take a seat, because of course, he could. They always exchanged a quick smile as a sort of greeting, when they met at the coffee shop. Sometimes Kaz was too busy with his work to talk much, and they just settled in a comfortable silence. But on other days, when none of them was busy, they kept up their enjoyable conversations. Kaz told John more about his job and the way some students acted these days and John told him about his work and how exciting or boring it could be sometimes. And Kaz never questioned him why he was stuck working a desk job at a security firm.

Their meetings continued for a few weeks and they settled into a comfortable routine, with John always getting there first, because his lunch break started a few minutes earlier than Kaz's and Kaz getting there not much later.

It was another day just like these and John sat at his table, slightly shoving his coffee mug around, because he never really knew what to do until Kaz came to sit with him. He was trapped in some thoughts about different kinds of things, when he saw the blond man come through the door, going to the counter to give his usual order of a caramel macchiato, how John had learned. John was thinking that maybe next time he should just get Kaz's coffee together with his own, since he was always the first one in the shop. He kept his gaze on him for a few seconds when a female voice was approaching him.

“Uhm, excuse me, is this seat taken?” she asked him, resting one hand on the back of the chair. Her brown, curly hair was framing her face, which had a warm smile on it. John looked at her dumbfounded for a few seconds, not sure what to do. When her expression changed into a look of confusion he noticed that he was supposed to say something.

“Ah, sorry, but... I'm waiting for a friend.” he said, because that was the first thing that came to his mind. He knew he didn't really have an agreement with Kaz or anything, because his chair just always happened to be the only one left and they started sitting at the same table just out of convenience. But he just couldn't let that woman sit here and leave Kaz without a place to sit, even though he was doing the same to the woman right now. John's gaze wandered over to Kaz for a split second, who was just taking his order and started walking toward his table, slowing his steps when he noticed the woman talking to him.

“Oh, okay, then.” the woman said, slightly disappointed, but smiling at him anyway. John couldn't even look her in the eyes right, suddenly a bit embarrassed about the whole situation. She turned on her heel and just as she was walking away, searching for another place to sit, Kaz reached his table, standing next to his seat.

“What was her deal?” the blond man asked him, looking in the direction the woman just went.

“Well, she asked if she could sit here, so...” John explained, scratching the skin right under his eye patch, feeling slightly confused about what just happened.

“Oh? A shame you didn't let her, she was quite the beauty.” Kaz said, taking a look at the woman again, who seemed to have found another seat at the window in the front of the shop.

“Huh? Oh, yeah... I guess.” John tried his best to seem casual. He didn't want to make a huge deal out of this, and he didn't even know what Kaz would think if he let him know that he just called him his 'friend'.

“Well, at least I don't have to worry about finding another seat now.” the blond man said and took another long look at John, but then eventually sat down on his seat. A kind of awkward silence settled between the two and John went back so fidgeting with the coffee mug in his hands. Kaz always had his papers to distract him with, but John didn't really have anything to do on his lunch break, but this was the first time he really noticed this, because usually he could fill his break with talking to Kaz.

It was Kaz who broke the silence after a while.

“I hope you don't feel bad for not giving her a seat now, that's not what I wanted to say.” he said with a slight chuckle.

“Ah, no, that's not it. It's just... I don't really know. I just preferred you sitting here I guess.” John let a hand slide over his face, not really sure how he should express what he wanted to say. “I hope that doesn't sound too weird.” he tried to lighten up the awkward situation with a low chuckle. He really wasn't good at dealing with this.

“No, not at all! I like your company, too.” Kaz said with a smile on his face. He went back to having the careless tone in his voice he always had, when they were talking. John suddenly felt weird for feeling so flustered and tried to push these thoughts to the back of his mind.

It just took another few minutes until they fell in their usual patterns of casual conversations again.

“Okay, I guess I'll have to go.” John said with his usual look on his wristwatch. Gathering his things like he always did, he was almost on his way to the door when Kaz stopped him.

“John?” he said, almost gripping his sleeve, but then thinking better of it, stroking his hand through his hair instead.

“Yes?” John turned toward Kaz, a questioning look on his face. Kaz seemed to struggle with what to say for a few moments, but then smiled at him again.

“Uhm... no, never mind. See you tomorrow.” he said eventually. Even though John almost wanted to pressure Kaz into telling him what ha wanted to say, he thought better of it. He was happy about hearing from Kaz that they would see each other tomorrow and that was enough for him for now. He always looked forward to their conversations, but they usually never said anything other than “Goodbye” when they parted ways.

“Oh, okay... see you tomorrow.” he said with a smile on his face and walked to the coffee shop's door.

John didn't know yet that they in fact wouldn't see each other the next day.

 

\---------------------------------------------

 

Kaz couldn't keep his eyes from the clock. His lunch break was already halfway over and there was no indication that he would get out of here sometime soon. He tried to sigh as quiet as possible, fidgeting in his seat. He took out his phone, swiping over the screen a few times until he opened a new text window. Kaz was about to type out a message when he remembered he had no way of sending it. He didn't know John's phone number. Thinking of him he wasn't even sure if John had a cell phone. He muttered some curses under his breath, thinking of his seat at the coffee shop that was probably already taken by now. His gaze kept wandering to the clock, calculating if he could make it there if he ran, when this was over.

But the clock kept on ticking, and his break was over before he knew it.

 

\---------------------------------------------

 

John went to the coffee shop like he always did and took his usual seat. He was drinking his usual black coffee, while fiddling with his mug and waited the usual five minutes it took Kaz to come to the shop. Then another five minutes went by and then another five minutes. But Kaz didn't come to the coffee shop. After half of his break was over a man just took the empty seat at his table without asking, just giving him a short, awkward smile, when John looked at him.

He kept fidgeting with the mug in his hand and reached in his pocket to pull out his phone. He wasn't really used to using it yet, but his boss suggested he should get a smart phone so she could reach him if something urgent came up, and John could do the same. Why a normal phone without these fancy things like wifi wouldn't have done the job, he didn't dare to ask.

He started swiping over the screen a few times, not quite sure what to do with it, since he never really used it anyway, besides texting his boss of course. He thought about texting Kaz, asking him if something was wrong, when he suddenly remembered that he didn't even have his number. He noticed he really had no way of contacting him, and it irritated him that he couldn't do so.

The man in front of him typed something on his laptop, but John had no interest in striking a conversation with some random stranger, and he seemed very consumed in his work. So John just sat there, silently drinking his coffee, trying to get his thoughts somewhere else. But no matter what he thought of, his thoughts always shifted back to either his work or parts of the conversations he had with Kaz. He had no idea what he used to do during his breaks before he met Kaz, feeling really bored now when before he had liked some peace and quiet and time for himself.

He finished his coffee in silence and went out of the coffee shop, feeling even more tired after his break than before.

 

“Wow, you look bummed out. What happened?” his boss approached him when he got back to work. John knew his mood wasn't showing on his face too much, but his boss just knew him for so long, that she always noticed when something was up, so there was no use denying it. But that didn't make it easier for him to speak his mind. He let out a deep sigh.

“Nothing, it's just... there's this guy I'm usually sharing my table with at the coffee shop. He wasn't there today, so I'm... you know? Just wondering.” he said, scratching the skin under his eye patch like he always did when he was nervous. His boss let out a surprised gasp.

“Jack, why haven't you told me about your secret coffee shop affair, yet?” she said with a smirk on her face.

“What?” John looked at her in utter confusion, not quite knowing what she meant by that. She gave him a friendly pat on the back.

“I'm just messing with you. Don't get so serious.” she laughed and walked towards her desk. “Don't worry too much Jack. I'm sure there is a reason why he couldn't come.” she turned back to him and tried to reassure him.

John wasn't really sure what that was about, but the fact that he apparently looked as upset as he felt started to make him angry. It really wasn't such a big deal, he told himself. He just tried to shrug it off and concentrate on his work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading <3
> 
> I promised to have something up at the end of the week and there it is!
> 
> Tell me what you think in the comments or on tumblr :) ( [ilibra.tumblr.com](http://ilibra.tumblr.com) )  
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos until now!


	4. Coffee-To-Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no see! For everyone who has read the previous chapters before this update, just a quick annotation that I edited the previous chapters. I changed some details, improved the grammar a bit and added some more information to some parts. I would advise you to at least read over it again. If you don't wanna do that, I'll also put some of the things that changed in the end notes :)  
> For everyone who's new to this fic: Enjoy!

John entered the coffee shop, already half on his way to the counter when he stopped, thinking he heard someone calling his name. Looking over to the usual table there was Kaz, sitting there with two steaming coffees in front of him, waving him over. John walked to the table, relief coursing through his veins. Before he could say anything in greeting, Kaz spoke up.

"I'm so sorry about yesterday!" he said, grabbing his bag that was seated on the chair opposite of him to keep it occupied. John searched for something to say while he sat down, but to his slight relief Kaz just continued. "I had one of these stupid teacher conferences yesterday and of course they had to stretch out every little thing we talked about to no end. So I couldn't take my lunch break at the usual time."

Kaz sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed by the memory of yesterday. He shook his head and shoved one of the coffees towards John, a puff of steam coming from the mouth hole and curling lazily in the air. 

"I got you this to apologize." Kaz smiled at him, looking almost nervous.

"It's okay, Kaz, don't worry about it." John said, shaking his head, but taking the paper coffee cup in hand nonetheless, a tint of red on his cheeks. He had no idea how to deal with this situation, unsure what to think. He was honestly just glad nothing bad had happened to Kaz. Even yesterday, he'd been more worried than mad.

"Well, if you say so." Kaz said, smile still on his face. "I got you a coffee-to-go since you were a bit late today. I thought you could finish it on your way back to work."

"Oh yeah... thanks." John simply said. “I... have to cut my break short today.” He was too embarrassed to admit that he had stayed at the coffee shop a bit too long yesterday in hopes that Kaz might still come. Even though his boss had said it was okay and that he didn't have to cut his break short, he'd still worked into his break time to make up for the day before. It was only when Joy had found him at his desk and kicked him out that he had finally gone to the coffee shop.

Kaz could see that John didn't seem like he wanted to explain himself further, so he changed the topic, as he did every time, never pushing him. He started ranting about his coworkers and how they could have made the meeting so much shorter, but no one ever listened to him for some reason. John did though, he just listened to him, glad to spend time with Kaz again. While they talked Kaz fiddled with his coffee cup seemingly nonstop and glanced at John's hands from time to time, but John didn't pay it any mind. He was just glad to have him back at his table.

Way sooner than he would have liked to, John had to make his way back to work. When they said their goodbyes Kaz looked at him mildly worried for a second, before he resumed smiling as though he'd never stopped. John thought about asking if something was wrong, but decided against it, not wanting to push Kaz. He should repay the favor, he thought. 

With his cup in hand and in a significantly better mood than before he'd entered the coffee shop, John walked back to his workplace. He thought about the things Kaz had talked about today, wishing he could have taken more part in the conversation. Nonetheless, it was nice having someone that didn't think of him as weird for his silence. Someone he could just listen to without the pressure of holding the conversation up.

When John arrived at his workplace, he walked towards his desk in his office, looking over the clean space that was slowly starting to annoy him. He had been stuck with this desk job for nearly two months now and he was starting to get really bored of it.  
That frustration with not being out there in the field to properly aid his boss was always creeping in the back of his mind. Yet, on the other hand, this desk was starting to give him a weird sort of comfort. He didn't _have_ to go out there anymore, not at the moment at least. He knew this arrangement was only temporary and that his boss couldn't keep him at his desk forever. He knew how small this firm actually was, they needed the manpower. But for now, things were okay as they were.

“Jack! I told you, you don't have to cut your break short!” Joy called out, after she walked through the door of their office room, as soon as John had sat down, startling him out of his thoughts. She walked up next to him, crossing her arms and tipping her head to the side slightly. John just grumbled a semblance of a response, aware that it was no use arguing with her. Drinking the last sip of his coffee, he threw his cup into the trashcan next to his desk. He saw Joy giving his cup a weird look, probably because he didn't usually bring any coffee back to work with him, but then her look shifted into a sly grin.

“Didn't like them much?” she asked with a chuckle.

“What do you mean?” John said, confusion clear in his voice. What was she talking about? Instead of answering, Joy simply nodded her head towards his trash can. Still confused by what she wanted, he looked at the coffee cup he had just thrown away. At first John didn't see the text written on it, confusing it with the shop's logo. When he saw it though, the tips of his ears colored in a slight blush and he reached towards the cup with the unmistakable sequence of a phone number on it.

_For emergencies  
-Kaz_

was written underneath the number in black letters and the same handwriting. After eying the cup for half an eternity, John slowly pulled out his phone, making a new contact and putting the number in with Kaz's name attached. After he was done with that he glanced over at his boss for a moment, who was still watching him.

“Thanks.” John mumbled, sure he would have missed the cup if Joy didn't tell him. After looking at the cup in his hand, instead of throwing it in the trash again, he quickly put it in his bag to keep it. He had been lucky that the trash had only been full of paper. A loud chuckle from Joy made him turn his head away, scratching the skin under his eye patch in embarrassment. He was glad his boss didn't say anything else to this, just put a hand on his shoulder before going over to her own desk.

 

\---------------------------------------------

 

That evening, John sat nearly entirely motionless on his couch for an absurd amount of time, his fingers hovering over his phone. He kept opening and closing a new text window, debating on whether or not he should send Kaz a message or not.

He looked at the cup he had placed on the table to make sure he had put in the right number yet again, still not sure, though he'd checked at least a dozen times by now. He looked back down at the phone that looked small in his over large, rough hands. On the one hand, Kaz had written that it was only for emergencies, so maybe he'd be annoyed if John wrote him a text now. On the other hand though, how was Kaz supposed to text _him_ if there was an emergency?

That thought brought him to his decision. However, now he had a new hurdle to overcome: What to write?

 _"Hello Kaz. This is John-"_ No, that's way too formal. Even John could see that, and he doesn't text much in the first place.

 _"Hey Kaz, it's me, John, from the coffee shop on Winston Street."_ Well, that was better, but it still sounded weird to him. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He just wasn't good at this, but he wanted to give it a try.

 _"What's up Kaz?"_ No, definitely not. That just wasn't like him at all. He probably shouldn't try to sound younger than he was.

 

After a grueling process of typing and deleting and typing and deleting over and over again, John finally settled for a simple text.

John: Hey Kaz. It's John from the coffee shop. I found your number on the coffee cup.

It was a simple message, but it'd have to do. He thought about adding something else, so he wouldn't sound so serious, but then again, that didn't quite fit him. He wasn't used to the use of any kind of emoticons and he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Kaz. After hovering over the send button for a bit, he finally sent his message to Kaz and set his phone facedown on the table in front of him.

He had no idea what was wrong with him. Why was he behaving like a little schoolgirl when he was just texting a friend he just so happened to meet in a coffee shop? Pinching the bridge of his nose again, he leaned back on his sofa. Before he could fall deeper into thoughts though, his phone vibrated loudly, almost startling him, not used to his phone receiving any kind of notifications. Did Kaz really write him back that fast? That couldn't have been more than two minutes. John flipped his phone over, and sure enough, his phone screen lit up, bearing a message from Kaz.

Kaz: hey John! I'm glad you found it ;) i wasn't sure if it was a good idea to put it on the cup haha

John could feel his shoulders relax visibly. His unreasonable fear of Kaz being bothered by him or thinking his message was weird ebbing away.

John: Well, truth be told, I did almost miss it.

John had been debating with himself if he should tell Kaz he threw it in the trash or not, but decided on telling a watered-down version of the truth. Kaz didn't have to know.

Kaz: haha i guess it was a bit risky, sorry!  
Kaz: so are you done with work for today?

John noticed how Kaz wanted to switch topics apparently and he was fine with that. He already had enough embarrassment for one day. So they started talking about work again, how it was kinda slow at John's company at the moment and how Kaz was getting busier with finals preparations. But then they quickly drifted more into casual conversation. They were talking about their favorite movies, they both happened to have a similar taste in action movies, and about more trivial things like their favorite food. Kaz thought John had a really strange taste when it comes to meat.

John wasn't used to chatting via text messages, so his answers took a bit longer than Kaz's most of the time, but the other assured him that he didn't mind. This was all new to John and he couldn't shake the feeling of excitement. They wrote back and forth until it was well past time for them to get some sleep for the day, John uncharacteristically lugging the phone with him as he moved from room to room. After hovering over the keypad of his phone for some time, John decided to send the message as it was.

John: Good night Kaz :)

Kaz's excessive use of emoticons and smileys just seemed infectious to him. It was stupid to feel nervous over something so little, when today everyone was throwing these little faces left and right, but it was still... new.

Kaz: OOH a smiley face from you!! i feel honored, haha  
Kaz: good night john :D

With a blush on his cheeks and a small smile on his face, John went to bed that night and slept deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE! This fic is NOT dead :D
> 
> So I'm really sorry that this fic had to go into such a long hiatus, but since this was the first mgs fic (and English fic in general) that I wrote, I had a lot of other stuff I wanted to write. School and writers block also kinda kicked my butt several times over the last year. But I'm planning to finish this fic and already have a rough outline of everything!
> 
> Also, thank you SO MUCH for 97 kudos and almost 1k views on this <3
> 
> As always a huge shoutout to my loyal beta-reader [tsund0ku_library](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tsund0ku_library) who not only edited, but also helped me plan this story out!
> 
> If you liked this I would be really happy about some feedback here, or you could write me on [tumblr](http://ilibra.tumblr.com) or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/iLiibra) :D
> 
> Additional Notes: So now for the people who already read the first three chapters in the past. The most important change has to do with BB's job. He's still working at the security firm with Joy, but he's stuck at a desk job at the moment. He's also a bit reluctant to tell Kaz how he lost his eye and doesn't like talking about his job too much. And that's basically it. I'm just saying this now, because it's kinda important for the story later on.


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